Data discovery technology is filling the gap between traditional Business Intelligence (BI) and advanced analytics by providing business users with the right tools to perform their own analysis and build their own insights. As I mentioned in a previous blog, SAP has the right tools to do this. In this blog, we will discuss additional aspects of data discovery one should know and consider.

The use of data discovery can frequently result in errors from either unreliable data and/or a misunderstanding of gained insights. However, if one considers and effectively applies the following recommendations, it is possible to eliminate or at least minimize those risks:

Define data standards within the organization (i.e. who owns the data)

Make sure data is cleaned to ensure good data quality

Define business process standards with clear roles assigned regarding how reports and analyses will be implemented

Define the users who will have access to specific data sources and the right BI client tool

Train the business users

Once these steps are followed, business users can successfully use Data Discovery & Analyses tools to generate new insights and are able to not only answer the question of “What happened?”, but also answer “Why did it happen?”, which will help create business value from the collected data and help grow the business. These are also the first steps of the SAP Business Intelligence Journey to increase business opportunities.

Leading IT research and advisory firm Gartner believes the enablement of Data Discovery & Analysis as well as Self-Service BI will solve five major problems of traditional Business Intelligence, including:

Limited adoption and engagement by the business

Perceived lack of business value of reports developed by IT

The need for a technical expert, data miner or data scientist

Long development cycles

Narrow scope

Further, by giving business users what they need, not only can more insights be gathered, but data confusion will also be minimized. Data confusion typically exists in a lot of organizations because business users create their own data sources and analyses using Microsoft Excel. These users often combine all of the data sources to which they have access, regardless of whether they are enterprise data sources or their own data sources.

By following the right Data Discovery & Analyses approach and leveraging available SAP platforms and BI client tools, organizations can enjoy:

An easy-to-use and intuitive interface that is simple but feature-rich

An in-memory engine that provides the necessary performance required for interactive information exploration

Data connectivity to access multiple data sources without IT support

Please contact us at any time if you have questions. As a trusted business advisor and SAP partner, itelligence can help in every single step of the SAP Business Intelligence Journey.

Author:
Mario Randel

I am a Senior Consultant, Project Manager and Solution Advisor in the area of SAP Business Intelligence at itelligence North America and worked previously for itelligence Germany. I committed myself to always present customers the right and best available solution.
Before my time at itelligence I worked in a variety of Consulting and Management roles in the field of Business Intelligence, Banking, Asset Management, Compliance and HR. I have more than 16 years of different industry experiences, more than 7 years in SAP Business Intelligence and more than 5 years in Banking, Asset Management, HR and Compliance.
When not at work I spend most of my spare time with my family, doing outdoor activities like golf, tennis, motor sport, traveling or keep myself fit in the gym.